Dan Jacobson:

An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator:

Jacobson, Dan, 1929-2014

Title:

Dan Jacobson Papers1941-1992

Dates:

1941-1992

Extent:

17 boxes, 1 oversize folder, 6 galley
folders

Abstract:

The papers of this South African novelist consist of typescripts, handwritten
manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, clippings, galley and page proofs, dust jackets,
book reviews and advertisements, programs and handbills, personal documents, and a
sound
recording.

Dan Jacobson was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 7, 1929. His parents,
Hyman
and Liebe (Melamed) Jacobson, were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania. When
Jacobson was four, his family moved to the South African town of Kimberly, where he
lived
until he graduated from high school at the age of sixteen. He received a bachelor's
degree
in English literature from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1948,
then
worked as a laborer in a kibbutz in Israel for nearly a year. Following a brief period
of
employment in London as a teacher, Jacobson returned to Johannesburg in 1951 and worked
first as a public relations assistant for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies
and
then as a journalist for its Press Digest.

In 1952, Jacobson returned to Kimberly and worked in his father's milling/cattle feed
business. Jacobson had been writing since childhood but at this point decided to pursue
a
career as a writer and began work on The Trap. Jacobson first
achieved literary success in the United States, where his first short story, "The Box, "was published in Commentary, followed by the publication of other short stories in
Harpers Bazaar, the New Yorker, and other magazines. In 1954, Jacobson married Margaret
Pye, a teacher and children's writer from Rhodesia whom he had met in London, and
moved
permanently to London, where they have reared their four children.

Jacobson's first two novels, The Trap (1955) and A Dance in the Sun (1956), were well received and won him a one-year
Creative Writing Fellowship Award at Stanford University. Upon his return to England
in
1957, Jacobson continued to publish novels, short stories, essays, and book reviews.
In
1959, Jacobson was the recipient of the John Llewelyn Rhys Award for fiction for his
collection of short stories, A Long Way from London (1958).
In 1964, he received the W. Somerset Maugham award for Time of Arrival (1963), and from 1965 to 1966 he was a visiting
professor at Syracuse University.

The Beginners (1966) was Jacobson's most autobiographical book and
also his most successful financially. Jacobson's early works had South African settings,
but
he essentially left this behind following the publication of The Beginners. His next novel, The Rape of Tamar (1970), took up a religious theme and is one of
his more popular books. In 1975, after earning a living solely from his writing for
twenty
years, Jacobson became a lecturer in English at University College in London. He also
turned
away from writing short stories after having had six collections of short stories
published.
Jacobson worked on his eighth novel, The Confessions of Josef Baisz
(1977), for four years. As in many of his works, betrayal is a major theme. Like
The Wonder-Worker (1973), it has a complex, multi-layered style. In
1985, Jacobson published a book of autobiographical essays, Time and Time Again: Autobiographies; it was his most personal work.
Jacobson's later books Hidden in the Heart (1991), The God-Fearer (1992), The Electronic Elephant (1994), Hershel's Kingdom (1998), and All for Love (2005) continued his study of betrayal and the inner
workings of the human mind.

Several of Jacobson's works have been adapted for the stage; The Zulu and the Zeide was produced as a play on Broadway in 1965,
A Dance in the Sun was adapted as Day of the Lion in Cleveland in 1968, and The Rape of Tamar was produced as Yonadab in London in 1985.

Jacobson died in London on June 12, 2014.

The Jacobson collection consists of original and carbon copy typescripts, holograph
manuscripts, computer printouts, notebooks, correspondence, clippings, galley proofs,
page
proofs, dust jackets, book reviews and advertisements, offprints, programs, handbills,
personal documents, and a sound recording, ranging in date from 1941 to 1992. The
material
is arranged in three series: Works ([1953]-1992, 16.5 boxes), General Correspondence
(1952-1991, 9 folders), and Personal (1941-1987, 7 folders). The Works series is arranged
in
five subseries: Creative Works, Critical Works, Reviews of Jacobson's Works, Interviews,
and
Articles about Jacobson.

Most of Jacobson's works from 1954 to 1992 are represented in the collection. For
some
works, multiple drafts and corrected proofs reveal Jacobson's revision processes.
In
particular, the evolution of many of his short stories can be traced. Jacobson sometimes
uses photocopies of other works and correspondence in printing out or typing new
manuscripts, so that photocopies of some works and correspondence are located on the
versos
of later works. Published reviews of many of Jacobson's books show critical response
to his
work.

Most of the general correspondence is incoming correspondence from publishers, periodicals,
and other authors. Among the correspondents are Philip Larkin, Mary McCarthy, and
Leonard
Woolf. Fifty-nine letters from Jacobson's literary agent, Henry Volkening, cover the
years
1954-1964 and provide insight into the publication process of Jacobson's early books
and
short stories.

Among the few personal items in the collection are correspondence regarding Jacobson's
efforts to prove his eligibility to apply for the W. Somerset Maugham Award as a British
citizen and correspondence relating to his role as a director of Index of Censorship.

A list of all correspondents in the Jacobson collection is located at the end of this
inventory.

Other manuscripts at the Ransom Center relating to Dan Jacobson are located in the
John
Lehmann and London Magazine collections. The Center also houses Alan Paton and Nadine
Gordimer materials.

Additional Jacobson collections are held at Oxford University, England; and in South
Africa
at Witwatersrand University Library, Johannesburg; the National English Literary Museum,
Grahamstown; and the Africana Library, Kimberley.

Over 100 books and periodicals from Jacobson's personal library have been withdrawn
from
the collection and cataloged with the Center's book holdings. Among these are first
editions
of Jacobson's books; translations into German, Hebrew, Russian, and other languages;
anthologies containing stories and essays by Jacobson; textbooks, primarily college
readers,
containing his short stories and essays; periodicals containing his essays, articles,
reviews, and stories; a copy of Sheila Roberts' Dan Jacobson; a copy of Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm; and a copy of La Sorciére by J. Michelet, with an inscription by Sonia Orwell.